Lord Feldman: the Tory party's little-known chairman

There has never been a Conservative Party chairman quite like Lord Feldman of
Elstree.

The suave, former barrister has never stood for office, rarely speaks to the media and is virtually unknown outside the Westminster bubble.

However, talk to disgruntled Tory MPs or the party’s grumbling grassroots and you may be told that the public school-educated millionaire epitomises the well-educated, metrosexuals David Cameron surrounds himself with in Downing Street.

“It should be perfectly possible to work in Downing Street if you haven’t been to either Eton or Oxford,” one Conservative back bencher barked yesterday, reacting to internet rumours - subsequently denied by Lord Feldman - that he had referred to Conservative activists as “swivel-eyed loons”.

Critics of Mr Cameron - both inside and outside the party - say that too many of the Prime Minister’s inner circle are from wealthy, privileged background that make it hard for them to fully understand the full impact of the squeeze on living standards and other day-to-day concerns of millions of voters.

Andrew Feldman’s relationship with the Tory leader stretches back 30 years to the manicured lawns of Oxford.

While studying at Brasenose College, the pair struck up a friendship and tennis partnership. They also organised the college’s May ball together.

After graduating in law with a first, the then Mr Feldman worked as a management consultant and then as a barrister.

By 1995 he had joined his family’s fashion business, Jayroma. During his time as chief executive the firm’s turnover soared and his success ensured he could buy a £3milllion townhouse in Holland Park, just round the corner from Mr Cameron’s home in Notting Hill.

The tennis partners remained close and when Mr Cameron stood for the Conservative leadership in 2005, his old Oxford friend acted as his money man.

He gave £10,000 to Mr Cameron’s campaign and secured tens of thousands more from business backers.

After the leadership election, Mr Feldman became one of the Conservatives’ deputy treasurers and was promoted to be the party’s chief executive in 2008, a key role preparing the Tories for the 2010 election.

His charm and business experience attracted many wealthy donors, but insiders at Conservative Party headquarters say that his management style frequently veered towards the “brutal”.

Once in power, Mr Cameron made his old ally a member of the House of Lords and even gave him an office at his side in Downing Street - a privilege never before bestowed on a party chairman.

One senior Tory MP said of the peerage: “What was it for, other than being Dave’s mate?”

These critics point to other members of Mr Cameron’s entourage who knew him either at Oxford or from his time at Eton.

Kate Fall also met the Prime Minister during his university days. She helped run his campaign to win his parliamentary seat in Witney in 2001 and is now his deputy chief of staff, running his diary and acting as the gatekeeper who secures who gets access to Mr Cameron.

Last year it emerged that she dated George Osborne, the chancellor, while they worked together in the Conservative Research Department.

Steve Hilton, Mr Cameron’s former head of strategy, was also educated at Oxford met Mr Cameron at around the same time.

Ms Fall’s immediate boss, Ed Llewellyn, was two years ahead of the Prime Minister at Eton. Mr Llewellyn worked alongside Mr Cameron in the Conservative Party headquarters during the run-up to the 1992 general election.

The foreign affairs specialist would later go to work in Hong Kong with Lord Patten, the last British governor. However when Mr Cameron became Tory leader his school friend was hired to work in his private office.

Whereas some party figures say a run-in with Lord Feldman can be a bruising affair, Mr Cameron’s chief of staff is said to be calm, affable and diplomatic - a manner that has led to the nickname “steady Eddie”.

Mr Cameron’s chief whip, Sir George Young, was also educated at Eton, as was Boris Johnson, who has a close - if at times strained - relationship with the Prime Minister. Oliver Letwin, the influential Cabinet Office minister, and Rupert Harrison, the Chancellor’s chief economic advisor, attended the same school.

Despite long-standing unease about the proliferation of Etonians at the heart of government, Mr Cameron appointed two more to Downing Street roles earlier this month.

Jo Johnson - a Tory backbencher and younger brother of the London mayor - was selected to lead Number 10’s policy unit.

There were claims that the younger Mr Johnson would help inject Right-wing policies from the Tories’ grassroots, but one grandee said at the time: “If Number 10 think that Jo Johnson is Right wing they’re either stupid or communists.”

Jesse Norman, the respected Herefordshire MP who was also educated at the same school, has been appointed to advise Downing Street on economic issues.

At the time, Sarah Wollaston, the Conservative MP for Totnes, said: “I’m not asked for policy advice, but just in case ... there are other schools & some of them even admit women.”

Even the loyal Cabinet minister Eric Pickles has not been able to resist a dig a the Prime Minister’s reliance of graduates from his alma mater.

“Don’t look down your nose at someone who has the misfortune to been educated at Eton and not have all the privileges that life at comprehensive holds,” he told The Telegraph last week.

“These people need our help and sympathy. They should not be stigmatised.”

Senior Tories loyal to the Prime Minister point to senior figures in the Cabinet who came from humble background.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, was educated at a comprehensive. So too was Patrick McLoughlin, the highly-regarded Transport secretary, who worked as a coal miner and trade unionist before entering Parliament.

However, like last year’s “plebgate” row over Andrew Mitchell outburst, this latest spat over Lord Feldman’s comments to journalists in a Westminster bar will do little to assuage concerns that Mr Cameron’s inner circle is elitist and aloof.

Last night Robert Woollard, the chairman of Conservative Grassroots, a leading Tory pressure group against the Coalition’s same-sex marriage policy, said that many of the Prime Minister’s inner circle lived in a “Westminster bubble” and too often treated the party’s activist with “contempt”.

“They are out of touch with the rest of the country,” he said. “Frankly, they need to get out more.”